After Walt warned his brother-in-law Hank to “tread lightly” during Sunday’s Breaking Bad, the screen faded to black and the name “Kevin Cordasco” appeared. The episode was dedicated to him, a Breaking Bad superfan who sadly passed away in the spring after a six-year battle with neuroblastoma.

“He and his friends watched it obsessively and ate pizza in his bedroom,” [Kevin’s father] tells THR. “There was something about the Walter White character…the way he took control of his illness, and his life, that really resonated with Kevin.” As his condition worsened, Kevin’s godmother asked her friend Kim Byrd, an agent at Innovative Artists, if she could help Kevin meet the cast and creator Vince Gilligan.

Byrd’s colleague, Cher Van Amburg, is married to Sony TV marketing exec Chris Van Amburg, who reached out to star Bryan Cranston for help. “I literally got a call the next day from Bryan’s assistant,” says Byrd. Adds Cordasco, “Bryan and his wife sat with Kevin for hours at the hospital. And then Vince came to our house, along with some of the cast. They even invited Kevin to the writers room. He was beyond thrilled.” (Via)

On the Breaking Bad Insiders podcast, Gilligan explained that he offered Cordasco, the first person to ever understandably self-identity with Walter White, the opportunity to know how Breaking Bad ends, as long as he didn’t tell anyone. He refused; he wanted to find out the same way as everyone else. Yeesh. Here’s hoping that wherever Cordasco is now, he’s enjoying the final season, and doesn’t have to wait 30 minutes for a “next week on” promo.

I’m hoping Walt doesn’t die of cancer (I’m only in Season 3, so I don’t know what happens in season 4 / 5). I would think it’s in bad taste for Gilligan to offer up the ending of the show to a kid dying of cancer just to say Walt dies of cancer.

I listened to that podcast the other night, and if Gilligan had offered me the ending as well, I think I would have chosen to wait to watch as well. Although my cancer isn’t really terminally at the moment (three years and going strong, baby!).